Wild World: Spy Quiz

Spies can have fake wives, fake degrees, fake interests and fake lives. Spies are often romanticized in Hollywood, but how does James Bond compare with real spies? And what happens when a spy is spying on the people he's supposedly spying for?

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Question 1 of 10

The best spies are those with access to:

high-ranking officials or secret information

The best spies are often the ones with the best access to high-ranking officials. This access allows them to discover valuable information they can relay to their contacts.

large arsenals

every cell phone network in the world

Question 2 of 10

Assassins are spies who:

always work alone

sometimes use their skills to commit murder

Spies who murder are known as assassins. A government might call for an assassination to prevent someone from revealing information, or to punish someone who has switched sides.

always work for more than one agency at a time

Question 3 of 10

Espionage comes from a French word meaning:

to spy

The word "espionage" comes from a French word, "espionner," which means "to spy."

secret

silence

Question 4 of 10

A spy's legend is:

the location where he transmits secret information

a secret identity

a background story and documents that support an identity

A cover is a secret identity, and a legend is the background story and documents that support the spy's cover. A legend must be thorough and believable.

Question 5 of 10

What former U.S. president authorized the flight of a U-2 spy plane in 1960?

John F. Kennedy

Lyndon B. Johnson

Dwight D. Eisenhower

In 1960, U.S. President Eisenhower authorized the flight of a U-2 spy plane directly over the Soviet Union. The plane was shot down by a Soviet missile, and the United States was eventually forced to admit they had been spying.

Question 6 of 10

What nation did CIA official Aldrich Ames spy for in the 1980s?

Soviet Union

Ames, who is considered one of the worst spies in the history of the United States, spied primarily because he was heavily in debt. He sold names of Soviets working for the CIA to the Soviet government. At least three people were executed in the USSR as a result of his spying.

China

West Germany

Question 7 of 10

A dead drop is:

a secret hiding place in public used to exchange information

Dead drops are secret hiding places, often in public, used to exchange information. Spies will usually deposit information casually at a dead drop and give a signal to their handlers to let them know they have dropped information at the site.

a method of transmitting information in invisible ink

when a spy continues to provide information even though his cover has been blown

Question 8 of 10

What was the name of the code the Nazis used in World War II?

Ultra

Enigma

Enigma was a machine the Nazis used to send coded messages to one another. The Polish developed a machine that could decode messages sent by the Enigma machine and translate them as their original messages. They shared this information with the British and enabled the Allies to decode many messages during the war.

Purple

Question 9 of 10

What was Operation Fortitude?

a 1940 misinformation campaign in which the British fooled the Germans into believing that the entire Royal Air Force had been destroyed

a 1944 misinformation campaign in which the Americans fooled the Germans as to the location of the D-Day invasion at Normandy

In addition to planting wooden airplanes and dummy soldiers to make the Nazis think the Allies would be invading from England, Operation Fortitude was successful because a double agent named Garbo convinced Hitler that the Allies would be invading in the wrong place.

a 1945 misinformation campaign in which the Japanese fooled the Americans regarding the amount of troops at Okinawa

Question 10 of 10

A double agent:

supplies false information to both sides

supplies true information to both sides

provides false information to the side he's supposedly spying for while providing true information to the side to which he's originally loyal

A good example of a double agent would be an American who was supposedly a Soviet spy. Instead of providing the Soviets with the facts, he could provide them with misinformation, leading them astray, while getting valuable information from them after gaining their trust to provide for the United States, the country he was supposedly opposing, not supporting.